Jamie Lee Curtis recalls her battle with addiction: ‘I was as sick as my secrets’

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Jamie Lee Curtis is reflecting on her sobriety.

The actress took to Instagram on Wednesday where she posted a throwback photo of herself holding a glass of alcohol. The star detailed her past struggles with addiction and how she overcame them.

"A LONG time ago… In a galaxy far, far away… I was a young STAR at WAR with herself," the 62-year-old wrote. "I didn't know it then. I chased everything. I kept it hidden. I was [as] sick as my secrets."

"With God's grace and the support of MANY people who could relate to all the 'feelings' and a couple of sober angels...I've been able to stay sober, one day at a time, for 22 years," Curtis continued. "I was a high bottom, pun kind of intended, so the rare photo of me proudly drinking in a photo op is very useful to help me remember. To all those struggling and those who are on the path…MY HAND IN YOURS."

JAMIE LEE CURTIS REFLECTS ON ADDICTION BATTLE: 'I CHASED THAT FEELING FOR A LONG TIME'

Jamie Lee Curtis has been sober for 22 years. (Photo by Rodin Eckenroth/FilmMagic/Getty Images)

Curtis isn’t the only member of her family who has faced addiction. Her late father Tony Curtis struggled with alcohol, cocaine and heroin in his lifetime. Her half-brother, Nicholas Curtis, died from a heroin overdose in 1994 at age 23.

In 2019, Curtis described  her former self as a "controlled drug addict and alcoholic" in Variety’s "The Recovery Issue."

"I never did it when I worked," she told the outlet at the time. "I never took drugs before 5 p.m. I never ever took painkillers at 10 in the morning. It was that sort of late afternoon and early evening — I like to refer to it as the warm-bath feeling of an opiate. … I chased that feeling for a long time."

Curtis detailed how her addiction to painkillers began in her 20s after she was prescribed Vicodin post-cosmetic surgery "to remove the puffiness" under her eyes. And it wasn't until a friend caught her taking five pills with wine that she realized the damage of her actions.

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Jamie Lee Curtis took to Instagram where she got candid about her journey to sobriety. (Photo by Paul Harris/Getty Images)

"The jig was up," Curtis described. "Now I knew someone knew. I had been nursing a secret Vicodin addiction for a very long time — over 10 years."

One rock bottom moment came when Curtis stole Vicodin from her sister in the winter of 1999 and admitted it later in a note.

"When I came home that night, I was terrified that she was going to be so angry at me, but she just looked at me and put her arms out and hugged me and said, ‘You are an addict and I love you, but I am not going to watch you die,'" said Curtis.

Curtis attended her first recovery meeting in February 1999, after reading Tom Chiarella's essay "Vicodin, My Vicodin" in Esquire magazine.

"I was terrified [of being recognized]. I was just terrified that someone in the recovery community was going to betray my trust," Curtis confessed. "But it is my experience that that doesn’t really happen and that my fear was unfounded."

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Actor Tony Curtis and actress Jamie Lee Curtis attend Tony Curtis' Art Exhibition Dinner Party on April 22, 1989, at Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills, California. (Photo by Ron Galella, Ltd./Ron Galella Collection via Getty Images)

But the actress has been committed to maintaining sober even though her job takes her all over the world.

"I bring sobriety with me," she explained. "I have attended recovery meetings all over this world."

"I was probably about nine months sober when I made 'Freaky Friday' [in 2002]. I put a big sign up by the catering truck, and it said, ‘Recovery meeting in Jamie’s trailer every day.’ I left the door open and didn’t know if anybody would show up. We ended up calling it the Mobile Home Recovery Meeting. It was probably my favorite grouping of sobriety that I’ve ever participated in."

Curtis added she's "very careful" and aware of her surroundings. When staying in hotels she asks them to remove the minibar and when she was filming a movie in Panama, she attended meetings that were completely in Spanish — even though she couldn't understand a word.

"I went and sat down and met people, shook hands," she said.